Pegado a ti

I was worried with the 5.6 rating this was going to be average at best but it's so well acted and delivered I can't understand who didn't like it. It avoids cheap jokes at the expense of the brother's conjoined condition yet delivers laugh after laugh in a good-natured and fun way. Damon and Kinnear deliver high quality character depth with warmth and charm, well above midnight double feature level and the star cast nods are icing on the cake. The film is just good fun all the way through. Well worth the time to watch it and it seems it is a somewhat overlooked classy film.

Bob (Matt Damon) and Walt (Greg Kinnear) are conjoined twins (joined at their lower trunks--they share a liver) from Massachusetts. They own a burger joint named "Quickie Burger" and Walt has a love of acting. Walt decides to move to California to try his luck at the big time, and although Bob is initially reluctant, he also has a beautiful "Internet pal" in California who he's been talking to for more than three years.

Compared to some of directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly's other films, such as Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, and Me, Myself And Irene, we could say that the humor in Stuck On You is much more subtle. That fact may be off-putting to viewers who come to Stuck On You primarily as fans of the Farrelly Brothers' previous work. There are still outrageous gags here, but they tend to be funnier if you exercise your intellect a bit, and believe it or not they are more rooted in reality than some other Farrelly Brothers films. If you are familiar with Daisy and Violet Hilton's story, for example--they were infamous sideshow performers who were conjoined twins--you'll note similarities, such as how they approached relationships with persons of the opposite sex.

Like much of the Farrelly Brothers other work, however, Stuck On You is as heartwarming as funny, and on one level, it's primarily a very odd romance film. It also seems that perhaps this is the most personal of their films so far, and it may very well be a depiction of their love for each other as brothers. That also gives Stuck On You a slightly more serious edge, but one that works very well. This is a quality drama in addition to being a comedy leaning towards absurdism. That may sound like a strange combination, but it flowed smoothly for me as a viewer.

The performances by Damon and Kinnear are on target, and their love interests, May (Wen Yann Shih) and April (Eva Mendes) are intriguing and not at all clichéd. The extended cameos by Cher and Meryl Streep, as themselves, are very entertaining, and the supporting cast is excellent.

There's something about this `Stuck on You' that sticks to me after my initial impression that the Farrelly Brothers have created another inane comedy to compete with their equally dubious `Dumb and Dumber' franchise, `Shallow Hal, ' and `There's Something about Mary,' among others. That something is taking a story about goofy conjoined twins (Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear), tossing in bathroom and masturbation jokes, and then seeing a basic metaphor about the loss people feel when separated from another human being with whom they have spent their lives.

I commend the Farrellys because `Stuck on You' does not play for the broadest laughs but gently lampoons pretentious Hollywood and overtly praises the sincere emotions of two linked humans and the New England town that loves them regardless of their disability. I liked the connection of two innocent, loving brothers, who miss each other after separation. I liked botoxed Cher's presence to emphasize the decayed humanity of L.A., which sees clearly the business profit in deformity.

On another allegorical level, the twins could be the projection of the Farrellys themselves, going to Hollywood to exploit its penchant for seizing on the flavor of the month, regardless of its incorrectness or inhumanity and facing their own eventual split (Bobby is considering cutting back on their productions). The Farrellys are not the Coens, whose satire is more Kaufmans' `Adaptation' (Even if the brother is only imagined) than Zuckers' `Airplane.' But the Farrellys' five major motion pictures make them as bankable as any other successful brothers in the business.

Seeing diva Cher make fun of herself and Meryl Streep cutup as co-star with Kinnear in a musical stage production of `Bonnie and Clyde'(Think `Springtime for Hitler') are a couple of reasons to see this film. The best reason, however, is to enjoy the lighthearted interaction of two brothers who learn that nature's cruel marriage of their bodies gave them the best emotional marriage of their lives. The Farrellys have confirmed the Karl Menninger belief that `to know one another well enough should not be to hate one another the more but to love one another the more.'

Even those of us not conjoined could learn about brotherly love from `Stuck on You.'

To be honest, I am still a little amazed at how much I liked this film. I resisted seeing it for a long time because the concept sounded so offensive. But offensive is the last word I would use to describe this movie. Hilarious would be more accurate. The conjoined twin thing never feels like fodder for cheap jokes. Yes, it plays prominently in the plot, but it just never feels like you are laughing at them, only with them. There is genuine affection for the two main characters, played expertly by Damon and Kinnear, that really shines thru. To be absolutely honest, a lot of what makes this film so incredible is hard (for me, at least) to describe. All I can say is that it's funny, it's touching, it's a bit of Farrelly brothers magic. See it, you won't regret it.

I went into the cinema with friends and said: "It's a Farrelly Brothers film; you can guess the level of humour." There's Something About Mary I love, but let's face it -- the humour is quite crass, even if the movie does have some heart. So I expected another movie with jokes in bad taste, and lots of humour at the expense of conjoined twins. At least this is how the film has marketed it. However, it couldn't be further from the truth. What has been marketed is quite different to what the film is about.

Whilst the film does have humour -- some movements hilariously funny -- this film is at heart a light drama. And this is by certainly no means a bad thing. When I expected low-IQ humour, what I got was just a really engrossing tale of two brothers who just happen to be conjoined. The chemistry between Damon and Kinnear is just perfect, and the relationship between the brothers (no doubt written from experience by the Farrelly Brothers) was wonderful.

Fox's marketing treatment of the film is appalling. In the trailer, Matt Damon's character says: "We're not Siamese, we're American," and the trailer plays it like he is stupid. Whereas in fact, when watching the film, the context is very different -- he's reacting with indignation, and in defence of their conjoined nature. This is indicative of the entire film. Never is their conjoined-nature used for humour in a bad way.

Throw away what you've seen in the trailers, or what you think the film is about. Go and see this movie that has its heart so very much in the right place -- a great antidote to so many Hollywood films that have the soul of a stone. I don't normally get sentimental with films. I'm the type of viewer that laughs when Jack dies at the end of Titanic. But I went away from Stuck On You knowing I'd seen a very special film indeed. Highly recommended.